Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery–February 2007

If you are having trouble seeing this newsletter, copy this link into your web browser www.tasselridge.com/newsletter2-07.htm

Our Hours:

Effective February 1, 2007, we are open for tours, tasting, wine, and gift shop sales as follows:

We are closed on Monday and Tuesday except by prior arrangement.

Our Location:

Tassel Ridge Winery is easy to find. It is just south of State Highway 163 on 220th Street in Leighton. From Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, drive northwest on 163 to 220th Street and turn left towards Leighton. From Des Moines and Pella, turn right at 220th Street. Drive west on 220th about 0.7 miles from the Highway and right into the Tassel Ridge Winery parking lot.

Valentine's Day

The tasting room and gift shop are all decked out for Valentine's Day! We will help you select the perfect wine to make your romantic evening extra-special.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we are delighted to announce that we now carry dark chocolate from Pella chocolatier Van Veen Chocolates. It is the perfect complement to our Finalé dessert wines. What could be more indulgent than a glass of decadent dessert wine with the rich, silky taste of dark chocolate?

2006 Iowa Frontenac Rosé

The 2006 Iowa Frontenac Rosé is a light, fruity, aromatic wine with soft tannins. It is made in the traditional rosé style with minimal skin contact.

The 2006 Iowa Frontenac Rosé is probably our most aromatic wine. It displays ripe summer raspberry and red cherry notes on the nose and pallet with crisp acidity for which Frontenac is well known. It has enough residual sugar to balance the acid and a crisp finish.

Pair the Frontenac Rosé with mild flavored meats like chicken, park, or beef. Serve chilled.

This wine was made from Frontenac grapes grown at Meadowcreek and Newport Lane Vineyards in Oskaloosa. Frontenac is a grape variety that was developed by the University of Minnesota to perform well in our cold winters and short growing seasons.

For some couples in which one person likes light bodied white wines and the other prefers full bodied red wines, the 2006 Iowa Frontenac will be the perfect compromise wine. It has body…but not much. It has some tannin…but not much. It is versatile and will work with full flavored fish, pork and chicken dishes, and lightly seasoned beef dishes. It should also work well with highly spiced Asian meals.

The 2005 Iowa Frontenac Rosé was our first wine to sell out. It proved to be quite popular. It was released on February 2.

Price: $12.00 per bottle

Upcoming Wine Releases:

Our Finalé Dessert Wine product range will grow in the next month with the releases of a Raspberry, Blackberry, and Iowa Finalé. These three additional dessert wines will give our dessert wine program some breadth that will allow us to address several different niches in the dessert wine market. By the way, the Iowa Finalé is made entirely from St. Croix and Foch grapes grown in Mahaska County.

And, we will release our 2006 Edelweiss in both a dry and semi-sweet version sometime in January. This grape variety is grown entirely in our vineyards and it offers delightful pineapple and citrus notes.

These wines are all in the bottle now and are just awaiting label approvals so we can label them.

Party Planning…Or How Much Wine Should I Provide For My Next Party??

With the Super Bowl just around the corner and Valentine’s Day parties soon to follow, the following hints on how to estimate how much wine will be needed might prove helpful.

  1. A glass of wine is about five ounces and there are five glasses in a 750 ml bottle.
  2. How much will people drink? The answer to this question is a function of how long they will stay at your party, how much food is being served, and individual preferences for beverages. Some people are primarily beer drinkers and won’t drink any wine while others will consume wine only. Some will be driving and will limit themselves to a glass of wine and will then switch to soft drinks or iced tea. A male may consume two glasses of wine per hour over a five hour Super Bowl Party and be quite mellow when the time comes to depart. A female will feel about the same on about 50% as much wine. So, how much wine will be consumed is a function of what the alternative beverages are, the type and quantities of food, the preferences of your guests, and the length of the party. This estimation is more of an art than a science.
  3. So, for a Super Bowl Party that will last for five hours, with lots of finger food, plenty of non-alcoholic beverages for drivers, and beer for non-wine consumers, you might estimate the number of five ounce wine servings as follows:
    • Assume 50% of your guests will consume wine and the rest beer and soft drinks.
    • Assume that your guests will consume wine at a rate of one glass per hour (you can influence the rate of consumption by how much wine you put out at a time).
    • So, if 20 people attend your party, you might assume that ten will consume five glasses of wine each for a total of ten bottles.
    • If you know your guests beverage preferences, you can fine tune the estimate up or down.
  4. What kind of wine will be most popular? In Iowa, sweet or semi-sweet wines are preferred by 60% of the public. Your guests’ preferences may be different but don’t assume so unless you know them well. Our Tickled Pink and new 2006 Iowa Frontenac Rosé are likely to be crowd pleasers when informal finger food is being served. If you serve a sit-down meal with well seasoned beef, you might want to offer a red wine such as our 2005 Iowa Frontenac or our 2006 Iowa Nouveau. In this case, estimate that 2/3 of your guests will consume two servings of wine during the meal. This would total about five bottles of red wine. Add wine to be consumed before and after the meal.
As you can see, these are all educated guesses. You will probably want to purchase a little more so that you don’t run out. Because you might end up with extra wine, you will want to select wine that you like so that you won’t mind consuming the extra wine yourself.

Tassel Ridge Winery Now Ships Wine to Iowa Addresses and Ten Other States:

We can now ship wine to addresses in Iowa and the following states: Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. We ship via UPS provided the shipment can be received by an adult.

The approximate cost for shipping two bottles of wine in Iowa is $10-15 and the cost for shipping a twelve bottle case is about $15-20. Normal delivery time to Iowa locations is 2-3 days from date of shipment.

The cost for shipping outside of Iowa depends on the weight and which state we are shipping to. For example, the cost for shipping two bottles of wine to New Mexico is $13 - 18and the cost for shipping a twelve bottle case is $15 - 22.

Are you out of your favorite Tassel Ridge Wine and can’t make it to the Winery to pick up a new supply? We will make it easy for you to keep your wine cellar full. Or, would you like to give someone a gift of Tassel Ridge wine and have it sent directly to them? Give us a call. We will get your order on its way to you or to people located in the states noted above.

What’s Happening in the Cellar?

In February, cellar operations will focus on bottling wines. But, we’ll also receive 3,000 gallons each of Chardonnay and Muscat juice from California. We will work quickly to get this juice inoculated and to start the wine making process. Our 2006 Syrah is about ready for several months of contact with oak so we will be putting American oak planks contained in food-grade nylon “tea bags” into the stainless steel tanks with the Syrah. Contact with American oak will give the Syrah some body and complexity that makes it more pleasing on both the nose and pallet. We will start ageing our 2006 In The Dark with oak in “tea bags.” And, we expect to receive juice for our 2006 Cherry, Cranberry, and Plum fruit wines. As soon as this juice arrives, we will start fermentation. We expect to release the fruit wines in April.

Calendar

The 2007 Tassel Ridge Winery calendar is now available. It is produced in a large 10.5 by 16 inch format and includes 13 full color images of Tassel Ridge Winery, our vineyards, and our cellar. The calendar includes some interesting facts about some of the varieties of grapes we grow in our vineyards as well as images of members of our winemaking team. The Calendar is now free while supplies last.

Gift Ideas:

Wooden Gift Boxes of Wine

These gifts can include 2, 3, or 12 bottles of wine. The 2 bottle box will include two Tassel Ridge Winery glasses. These wine boxes make a very classy and memorable gift. Prices depend on specific wines included but are in the $50-60 range for 2 and 3 bottle boxed gifts and $250 for the 12 bottle box.

 

Gift Baskets with Wine

Does a gift basket work better for you? We offer gift baskets with two bottles of wine and several complimentary items for about $55.00 (price will vary with items you select). These baskets are very attractively packaged in cellophane and make a striking gift.

 

Gift Cards

Tassel Ridge Winery gift cards are an appropriate gift for wine lovers any time of the year. They can be issued for any amount. All gift cards are valid for purchase of wine and non-wine merchandise only and no cash refunds will be made. Gift cards are sold in an attractive gift envelope. They make a great gift for people who like wine.

 

Tassel Ridge Wines
Will Soon Appear in Retailers Near You

As of February 1, 2007, selections of Tassel Ridge Wine were available at the retailers and restaurants listed below. Note that most retailers do NOT offer all of our wines but rather focus on those wines that sell the best. Contact us directly for other wines.

Altoona: Hy-Vee, 100 8th Street SW

Ames: Cyclone Liquors, 626 Lincoln Way

Ankeny: Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 410 N. Ankeny Blvd

Bloomfield: Keith’s Foods, 207 E. Locust

Burlington: 939 Angular Street, Burlington

Des Moines: Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 7101 University

Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 555 South 51st Street

Hy-Vee Drug Town, 3580 EP True Parkway

Spaghetti’s, South Ridge Mall (restaurant)

Fairfield: Hy-Vee, 2100 W. Burlington

Knoxville: Round Window Liquor, 703 W Pleasant St

Marshalltown: Lilly Mae Candies, 23 Main Street

Oskaloosa: CB Liquor, 1202 A Avenue East

Hy-Vee, 110 S. D Street

Spaghetti’s, 1716 A Avenue West (restaurant)

Wiggs Country Store, 1308 A Avenue East

Ottumwa: Hy-Vee Drug Town, 1140 N. Jefferson

Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 1025 N. Quincy Ave

Pella: Cammie’s, 605 Franklin Street

Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 512 E. Oskaloosa St.

Westpoort Convenience Center, 2421 Washington St.

Washington: Café Dodici, 122 S. Iowa Street (restaurant)

Dodici’s, 122 S. Iowa Street

If you have a favorite retailer where you’d like to purchase Tassel Ridge wines in the future, please e-mail me at bwersen@interpower.com and we will arrange to contact them.

Email Brian Babcock at info@tasselridge.com to sign up a friend for our enewsletter.

Previous Issues:

www.tasselridge.com/news.htm